The Nagpur Bench of Bombay HC has rejected the bail plea of Surendra Gadling in connection with a 2016 arson case.
A Bench of Justice VM Deshpande & Justice Amit B Borkar held that "the Court trying offences under second schedule of the NIA Act is Special Court, the person aggrieved by an order of refusing bail is required to file appeal under Section 21(4) of the NIA Act & the application under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is not maintainable before the High Court."
The Court observed, "All Scheduled Offences i.e. all offences under the UAPA, whether investigated by the National Investigation Agency or by the investigating agencies of the State Govt, are to be tried exclusively by Special Courts set up under that Act."
Disposing of the plea, the Court granted liberty to Gadling to avail the appropriate remedies subject to limitation.
The HC concluded that all offences under UAPA are to be tried exclusively by the NIA Court, irrespective of whether NIA investigates it or not.
The Court concluded that the present bail plea before them was an appeal challenging the rejection order of the Special Court under the NIA Act.
The Court noted that an appeal under Section 21 of the NIA Act had to be instituted within 30 days of the order under challenge & was barred after a period of 90 days as per subsection (5).
The Sessions Judge had rejected bail in Sept 2019 & the present application was filed in March 2020 which was beyond a period of 90 days due to which the Court couldn't hear the appeal.
The Court concluded that since the present proceeding is challenging an order of the Special Court, it was required to be challenged under Section 21(4) & therefore, a regular bail application under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is not maintainable.
After arrest in the Gadchiroli case, Gadling had approached the Sessions Judge in Gadchiroli for regular bail which was rejected in 2019. Challenging that order, Gadling filed the present plea for bail before the HC.
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